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Rome, Italy, Mar 2, 2017 / 11:47 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis met Thursday with priests of the Diocese of Rome, delivering a lengthy meditation on St. Peter and his example of faith – which, though imperfect, grows and develops throughout his discipleship.

Looking at the Gospels, “we see that the faith of Simon Peter has a special character: it is a proven faith, and with it he has a mission to confirm and strengthen the faith of his brothers, our faith,” he said March 2.

St. Peter had moments of both weakness and greatness in his faith, the Bishop of Rome pointed out.

But in the end, if we follow his example and have the same “awareness of having ‘little faith,’ along with the humility to let ourselves be helped … this is the point of healthy self-esteem in which is rooted the seed of that faith ‘to confirm others,’” he said.

As well as to ability to follow the command “‘to build upon this rock’ which is what Jesus wants from Simon Peter and from us who participate in the ministry” of priesthood, the Pope explained.

The meeting between Pope Francis and priests of the Diocese of Rome takes place annually at the start of Lent at the Basilica of St. John Lateran, the cathedral church of Rome.

After hearing the confessions of 15 priests, the Pope said he would give a slightly abbreviated version of the lengthy meditation he had prepared, although printed versions of the full text were handed out to the clergy to read during “these days of Lent.”

He concluded the meeting by leading the Angelus.

His meditation reflected on the theme of faith in general, and how the priests can help it grow and mature within themselves in order to better lead others to grow in their faith, and focused, in-depth, on scenes between Christ and St. Peter in the Gospels.

Because if we priests don’t have the habit of growing and maturing our faith, Francis asked, how can we expect to help grow and develop the faith of others?

“The faith of Simon Peter is less than that of many of the small faithful people of God,” he said. “There are even the pagans, like the centurion, who have greater faith in time to ask for the healing of a sufferer of their family.”

“Simon's faith is slower than that of Mary Magdalene and John. John believes just seeing the sign of the shroud and recognizes the Lord on the shore of the lake just listening to his words.”

But St. Peter’s faith “has moments of greatness” as well, the Pope said, such as when he confesses that Jesus is the Messiah.

“I would say that is a sharable faith, perhaps because it is not so admirable. The faith of one who had learned to walk on water without tribulations would be fascinating, but maybe push us away,” he said.

“Instead, this faith from a good friend, aware of his smallness and who fully trusts in Jesus, raises our sympathy and – this is his grace – confirms us!”

The Pope’s meditation also emphasized the importance of prayer in a priest’s life, pointing out how Christ himself says he has prayed for St. Peter in Luke 22:31-32: “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded to sift all of you like wheat, but I have prayed that your own faith may not fail; and once you have turned back, you must strengthen your brothers.”

“The fact that the Lord expressly says that he prays for Simon is extremely important, because the most insidious temptation of the devil is that, along with some special test, we feel that Jesus has abandoned us, that somehow he has left us alone and he did not help us as he should have,” Francis said.

“The Lord himself has experienced and overcome this temptation, first in the garden and then on the cross, trusting in the Father's hands when he felt abandoned.”

“It is in this point of the faith that we need to be specially and carefully strengthened and confirmed,” he said. But in the Lord’s care “we find the strength we need.”

“The Lord asks us to pray continually and persistently,” he continued.

“As priests who take part in the Petrine ministry, in what he is to us, we take part in the same mission: not only do we have to wash the feet of our brothers, as we do on Holy Thursday, but we have to confirm them in their faith, showing how the Lord prayed for ours.”

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IMAGE: CNS/L'Osservatore Romano

By Junno Arocho Esteves

ROME (CNS) -- Faith is a continuing path of growth and maturity that cannot progress without the presence of temptations, Pope Francis told priests of the Diocese of Rome.

How faith develops in "a man, in a priest" despite his flaws can be seen in St. Peter, the pope said March 2 as he led a meditation with diocesan and religious clergy.

"One thing is clear: Temptation is always present in the life of Simon Peter and temptation is always present in our lives. Moreover, without temptation, you cannot progress in faith. In the 'Our Father,' we ask for the grace to not fall but not to not be tempted," he said.  

The meeting, held at the Basilica of St. John Lateran, was delayed for roughly 45 minutes as Pope Francis heard the confessions of a dozen priests, according to the Vatican press office.

Greeted with a warm applause by the priests, the pope said that he would not read his entire meditation and instead focus on key aspects of his talk, titled, "The progress of faith in priestly life."

Without a continual growth in faith, the pope said, priests run the risk of remaining immature and living priestly life "halfway."

"And we priests, if we do not have a mature faith capable of generating faith in others -- that is, fatherhood -- we can do harm and so much evil. But if faith grows, it does so much good," the pope said, departing from his prepared remarks.

Faith, he continued, must be nourished by three important components: memory, rooted in the faith of the church and "the faith of our fathers"; hope, which sustains faith; and "discernment of the present moment."

These three components, however, hinge on a "fixed point." The pope gave the example of a basketball player who, with his foot firmly "pinned to the ground," moves to either protect the ball, find a way to pass it or look for a path toward the basket.

"For us, that foot pinned to the ground, around which we pivot, is the cross of Christ," the pope said. "Faith -- the progress and growth of faith -- is always based on the cross, on the scandal of the cross."

Memory, he explained, feeds and nourishes faith, particularly the memory of the "covenant the Lord has made with us" through parents and grandparents.

Speaking off-the-cuff, the pope recalled a retreat when he found it difficult to be touched by the preacher's meditation on death and the final judgment.

At that moment, he said, "I remembered a writing my grandmother had on her nightstand: 'Be careful, God is watching you. Think that you will die and you do not know when.' And in that moment, I could pray and go forward. It was (my) roots that opened the way. A Christian always progresses from the root. Do not forget your roots."

Pope Francis said that faith is also strengthened through hope, which helps priests to "find new things" from their past to encounter God in those they are called to help.

"Faith is knowing how to see in the face of the poor you meet today, the same Lord who will come to judge us according to the protocol of Matthew 25, 'Whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.'"

To understand the past and sustain hope for the future, he added, discernment in the present is important and it often involves taking a step back to see the bigger picture.

Priests, however, often have the "insidious temptation" of "sterile pessimism," which seeks to resolve matters quickly and often gives in to the "evil spirit of defeat."

An example of a progression in faith through memory, hope and discernment, he said, is the apostle Peter, a man who is a "paradox" in that Jesus would often extol the virtues of others while Peter was often reproached for his lack of faith.

Peter's faith, however, is "faith that is tested," and through that he has the mission of confirming the faith of the disciples and the church today.

At key moments in his life, the pope continued, Peter is strengthened in his faith. Jesus "prays for him so that his weakness, and even his sin, is transformed into a grace" for him and for all.

Not following the example of Peter, the pope said, "a priest or a bishop who does not feel he is a sinner, who does not confess, who is closed in himself, does not progress in faith."

Pope Francis explained that the devil's greatest temptation was to instill in Peter the idea that he was "not worthy to be Jesus' friend because he betrayed him."

Although "the weight of our sins makes us move away from the Lord," the pope said the Lord is always faithful and "confirms us in our shepherding, in leading the flock."

"The Lord keeps moving forward and Peter's faith is full. And that sinner, who denied him, the Lord made him pope," Pope Francis said. "That is the Lord's logic."

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Follow Arocho on Twitter: @arochoju.

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IMAGE: CNS photo/courtesy of Salesians

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BANGALORE, India (CNS) -- The Salesians have organized a special prayer meeting to mark the one-year anniversary of the kidnapping of Indian Salesian Father Tom Uzhunnalil.

The priest was kidnapped in Aden, Yemen, March 4, 2016, in an attack in which four Missionaries of Charity and at least 12 others were killed.

"We are deeply distressed by the delay in assuring his release," the Salesians of Bangalore province said in a statement reported on by the Rome-based Salesian news agency, ANS.

Father Uzhunnalil had been living at the home for the elderly and disabled since September 2015, when Holy Family Parish in Aden was sacked and burned.

After the attack, Pope Francis described the Aden murders as an "act of senseless and diabolical violence."

Bishop Paul Hinder, head of the Apostolic Vicariate of Southern Arabia, told Catholic News Service March 28 that he had "strong indications" that Father Uzhunnalil "is still alive in the hands of his kidnappers."

The prayer service at Ernakulam Town Hall will be conducted with the collaboration of the Catholic bishops' conference of the state of Kerala, ANS reported. It said prominent church leaders, including at least two cardinals, were expected to attend.

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Copyright © 2017 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. www.catholicnews.com. All rights reserved. Republishing or redistributing of CNS content, including by framing or similar means without prior permission, is prohibited. You may link to stories on our public site. This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. To request permission for republishing or redistributing of CNS content, please contact permissions at cns@catholicnews.com.

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(Vatican Radio)  Luther and the sacraments: A Catholic re-reading in an ecumenical perspective. That was the title of a conference which took place at Rome’s Gregorian university this week, exploring the profound changes in understanding that have evolved over the past decades of theological dialogue.

These changes, according to the organisers, can help Catholics and Lutherans “understand anew the concerns of Martin Luther’s theology”.

Among those taking part in the conference was theology professor and ecumenical expert Annemarie Mayer from the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium.

She talked to Philippa Hitchen about the focus of this encounter, which was held to mark the 500th anniversary of the beginnings of the Protestant Reformation….

Listen: 

Annemarie notes that according to legend, the Reformation began when Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of a church in Wittenburg, though she adds that “probably this never happened.” But those theses, she says, were mainly concerned with indulgences, penitence, confession and the question: ‘Can you buy God’s grace or not?’

The main focus of the Rome conference, she says, is on the seven sacraments of the Catholic Church, while recognizing that Lutherans largely regard only “the so called major sacraments of Baptism and Eucharist as real sacraments”.

Professor Mayer says the discussions explored the question of personal confession, asking “is this still a sacrament for Lutherans or not?” Today, she says “the worldwide Lutheran tradition has developed in different lines” with some still practicing confession with an ordained minister, others saying it can be done by lay people, and others who don’t have individual confessions any more.

On the Catholic side, she continues, after half a century of ecumenical dialogue, it’s important to realise that “the Roman Catholic Church is, these days, in very many aspects what Luther had worked for and argued for, so there we see there are a lot of convergences”.

The conference also heard presentations on the sacraments of ordination and Eucharist, linked to the key questions of who can be ordained to the priesthood. Annemarie notes that in his opening address, Cardinal Kurt Koch presented a “future vision” of dialogue over the coming decades, saying that after the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification – which the World Communion of Reformed Churches is expected to sign up to shortly – the next step “might be to try to reach a joint declaration on the sacraments, on ministry and on the understanding of the Church. Is the Church necessary to mediate between God and human beings?”

This year’s 500th anniversary, Annemarie says, marks an event which brought about the split of the Church in the West and “started off a whole stream of blood in the religious wars, hence the way Catholics prefer to “commemorate” rather than to “celebrate” this event.

But in Luther’s day there were also important attempts to avoid the divisions and to “reach common ground,” Annemarie says, including the 1530 Augsburg confession upon which “every Lutheran pastor worldwide is still ordained” today. Perhaps it might be appropriate, she concludes, to commemorate this in 2030, rather than just forgetting about our Catholic-Lutheran struggles in ecumenism once 2017 is over.”  So, in this sense, she says, there are more and very interesting things to come!”

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